"124 plint's katueal history. [BookXII. 
common with the country of the Troglodytse. (H.) There is , 
no country in the world that produces frankincense except 
Arabia, and, indeed, not the whole of that. Almost in the 
very centre of that region, are the Atramitae,^^ a community of 
the Sabsei, the capital of whose kingdom is Sabota, a place 
situate on a lofty mountain. At a distance of eight stations 
from this is the incense-bearing region, known by the name | 
of Saba. The Greeks say that the word signifies a secret 
mystery.'^ This district looks towards the north-east, and 
is rendered inaccessible by rocks on every side, while it is 
bounded on the right by the sea, from which it is shut out by ! 
cliffs of tremendous height. The soil of this territory is said 
to be of a milky white, a little inclining to red. The forests 
extend twenty schoeni in length, and half that distance in 
breadth. The length of the schoenus, according to the esti- 
mate of Eratosthenes, is forty stadia, or, in other words, five 
miles ; some persons, however, have estimated the schoenus at, 
no more than thirty- two stadia. In this district some lofty 
hills take their rise, and the trees, which spring up sponta- 
neously, run downwards along the declivities to the plains/ 
It is generally agreed that the soil is argillaceous, and that I 
the springs which there take their rise are but few in number, 
and of a nitrous quality. Adjoining are the Minaei, the people I 
of another community, through whose country is the sole tran- | 
sit for the frankincense, along a single narrow road. The ' 
95 Virgil, Georg. B. ii. 1. 139, mentions Panchaia, in Arabia, as being 
more especially the country of frankincense. That region corresponds with i 
the modern Yemen. It is, however, a well-ascertained fact, that it grows j 
in India as well, and it is supposed that the greater part of it used by I 
the ancients was in reality imported from that country. The Indian in^ L 
cense is the product of a tree belonging to the terebinth class, named by I 
Eoxhurgh, who first discovered it, Boswellia thurifera. It is more espe- | 
cially found in the mountainous parts of India. On the other hand, it has i 
been asserted that the Arabian incense was the product of a coniferous tree, I 
either the Juniperus Lycia, the Juniperus Phoenicea, or the Juniperus | 
thurifera of Linnseus. But, as Fee justly remarks, it would appear more | 
reasonable to look among the terebinths of Arabia for the incense tree, if 
one of that class produces it in India, and more especially because the coni- 
ferous trees produce only resins, while the terebinths produce gum resins, 
to which class of vegetable products frankincense evidently belonged. In 
commerce, the gum resin, Oiibanum, the produce of the Boswellia serrata, 
and imported from the Levant, bears the name of frankincense. 
96 See B. vi. c. 32. Their name is still preserved in the modern Hadra- 
niaut, to the east of Aden. 
